The Deviated Sleeping Requirement
by ljkwriting4life
Summary: Set before and during The Septum Deviation in season 8, and delves deeper into the discovery and treatment of Leonard's nasal congestion, and Penny and Leonard's relationship at the time. Pure Lenny (and a few Shamy references, since we're also talking post-Prom-Equivalency). Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1 of 3

The Deviated Sleeping Requirement

By: Leese

Rating: T

Summary: Set before and during The Septum Deviation in season 8, and delves deeper into the discovery and treatment of Leonard's nasal congestion, and Penny and Leonard's relationship at the time. Pure Lenny (and a few Shamy references, since we're also talking post-Prom-Equivalency). Enjoy!

A/N: Even though in this episode Sheldon's concern for Leonard's operation obviously comes from a good place, I felt there were also some more 'back off' vibes from Leonard and Penny here, which was interesting and fun to play with over these three chapters!

This is also probably a slower, more 'dense' story than my others, which is just the way it kind of rolled out of me onto the keys over the weekend. Have some more ideas in the pipeline that will be less full on and a little lighter! :-)

****** 

Chapter One

Penny awoke with a start, unsure of where she was after being yanked from a less-than-pleasant dream by her subconscious. She immediately could not remember what she had been dreaming other than that it had been frightening, too focused on her shallow breath and racing heart, and the instinctive realisation that kept demanding her attention; this wasn't her room.

She lay still on her right side and looked around, wide-eyed, as her eyes slowly adjusted to the dark. The first thing she could make out was the wooden side table in front of her. A dark lamp hung over a box of tissues, and she could see the pink casing of her phone, which lay on the very corner of the table, closest to her.

Penny's breathing eased as she reached for the phone and her memories of the previous night returned. The fake prom on the roof, getting dressed up, dancing with Leonard under the fairy lights, watching the drama with Howard and Stuart and Howard's cousin unfold, and laughing with Raj's girlfriend Emily about it all…more dancing with Leonard. They had been the first to arrive and the last to leave, and it was absolutely the best prom she had ever been to. She had certainly gone home with the best man.

So Penny wasn't in a strange place after all, she quickly figured out. She was in Leonard's bed, in his room, and she was safe. Once her breath softened and her heart slowed, the smell of the sheets became familiar, so did the feel of the pillow she knew, and she could hear him behind her, snoring. He was certainly no danger to her, and after quickly checking the time on her phone – it was nearly four a.m. – Penny put it back on the side table and rolled to lie on her back. It was an attempt to quickly fall back to sleep, but that was easier said than done, thanks to her fiancé and his nostrils.

They rarely spent the night at one another's apartments since the engagement, with Penny still keen not to rush things and Leonard happy to oblige her nerves. For that reason, it was familiar to be in his bed but Penny didn't feel like it was entirely normal anymore, and she hadn't realised just how bad Leonard's snoring had actually become over the last few months. He sounded really congested, and from the times she could remember it did seem to be getting worse. A quick glance towards him told her that he was on his left side, facing away from her, but that didn't seem to matter even though Penny had always thought people snored more when they lay on their back.

It was something she had been meaning to bring up for a couple of months, but she just didn't know how to say it. 'Uh, honey…your snoring is kind of bad…maybe we should look into that.' Was snoring something they had to think of as a 'we' thing? Was it a 'him' thing? Did being concerned just lower her to the level of 'nagging wife'? Penny preferred to avoid being seen that way most of the time, and Leonard really wasn't the type of guy to need nagging or bossing around anyway. If anything it was the other way around-

Focus Penny, she thought as she furrowed her brow and stared at the ceiling. Her brain and Leonard's snoring had dashed her hopes of a quick return to slumber, but maybe that was her answer. In the light of day, when she rolled into his arms for a now-rare but much-missed morning cuddle and Leonard tiredly asked her how she slept, she would just mumble into his chest, 'not great, you snore'. He would deny it of course, because apparently she was the one who snored in the relationship, but definitely not like this. He didn't used to snore at all, it was true, and now he did…badly.

He was tired more lately too, she reasoned. He got headaches, he had been stuffy and using his nasal spray a lot and telling her it was pollen allergies flaring. It was certainly the season for it, Bernadette had been telling her all about Howard's hay fever, but what if that wasn't the case for Leonard? He didn't have watery eyes and he didn't cough and sneeze during the day like someone with actual persistent allergies. Did pollen even cause snoring? Penny knew it could probably make it worse but to go from not snoring to being this loud and grating…she wasn't a genius but Leonard's explanation – his guess, actually – still sounded farfetched.

Penny sighed and considered rolling out of bed, finding her dress in the dark and tiptoeing back to her apartment, but she couldn't bring herself to do that. They had a rule that if one person was going to leave and go home, they had to do it while the other was still awake, they had to say goodbye properly and leave. If they both fell asleep before that happened, or if one of them asked to stay and the other said yes, then that was where they would both stay.

It sounded silly but it worked surprisingly well. It was hard for both of them to leave but it did turn the leaving into 'just another fact of their relationship', rather than something that might make them feel incredibly guilty or awkward or sad. And when sleepovers did happen, sometimes spontaneously and sometimes at one of their direct requests after particularly intimate sex, or even just after a long day or important conversation, then it made those nights more special. It gave Penny a glimpse of what it could be like going to bed with someone and waking up with them every day, without forcing her to commit to it just yet, and the idea was increasingly becoming less scary. In fact, she was beginning to crave it.

She wanted to spend the rest of her life with Leonard, she was going to do that, and it was getting harder and harder to leave or to let him go. Both of them were making requests to stay more often. She knew he felt it too. There really was only one thing stopping them from both caving, and it wasn't her stubbornness…it was Sheldon. Penny didn't want to live full time with Sheldon as well, because she didn't want the three of them living in the guys' apartment to become Sheldon's new normal, or another part of his unyielding comfort zone. Leonard had been insistent about that too. But just as true was the fact that Leonard couldn't simply move across the hall; Sheldon clearly wasn't ready for that either. It was too big a change from his current normal.

So they had muddled through all three of their needs and come up with this plan. It did support their relationship, and even Sheldon had put effort into understanding it. Penny couldn't break that bond or that trust; she couldn't just tiptoe out of the apartment in the early hours of the morning and make that walk of shame across the hall. If Sheldon caught her, or in the morning if he asked Leonard where she was and Leonard had to sadly admit that she must have left in the night, then it would be extremely awkward and Sheldon would look at her like she was hurting Leonard's feelings and threatening the relationship, and she would feel humiliated. She would probably cry, knowing that she was the first one to walk out. Of course she would be the first one!

Nope, not happening, Penny assured herself. She did not even want to leave. She was staying with the love of her life, snoring or no snoring, and she was going to cherish what had been a wonderful night. She just needed to also cherish a few more hours of sleep! She propped herself up on her hand and turned to look down at Leonard. He was deeply asleep and his top shoulder had fallen forward; he was kind of hunched and maybe that was making the snoring worse. Maybe if she just rolled him onto his back, it would change his position and jolt him out of the rut he had gotten himself into for the night.

Penny touched the fingers of her right hand to her face to make sure they were warm, before she laid that hand on Leonard's top shoulder. She held her breath as she very carefully applied pressure and pulled him towards her. There was plenty of room between them and sure enough, Leonard rolled easily. Maybe he unconsciously knew it was her touching him, moving him closer to her. He didn't stir as he settled on his back, his head lay still on his pillow, and Penny smiled to herself when indeed, the snoring stopped. Leonard's breathing was deep and steady and only very slightly rattled.

Yes!

Penny lay back down proud of the silence that had filled the room, and she turned towards Leonard and shut her eyes. She snuggled in closer, and when she wrapped one of her arms around Leonard's, he linked their fingers in his sleep. Penny grinned and rested her face up against the soft skin of his upper arm. She could already feel sleep tugging at the edge of her soul again, and she let a deep, warm breath wash over his bicep as she relaxed.

She had no idea what time it was when she woke next, but it was still dark so it might have only been half an hour later. This second time, she hadn't had a nightmare; she didn't think she'd been asleep long enough to be dreaming at all. She was just…awake. Her face was still pressed up against Leonard's arm, she could smell his soap and skin and the last remnants of cologne, he was so warm, and their fingers were still tangled gently by their hips.

Penny sighed happily as Leonard exhaled, and she closed her eyes again, dismissing this wake-up call as some kind of random anomaly. She was probably still wired from their magical prom night, and still struggling to return to sleep after Leonard's snoring earlier. She let herself be relaxed by the sounds of Leonard's deep, nasal breathing and smiled against his arm.

Until it stopped. For a few seconds, Penny thought she had drifted off to sleep and was happily anticipating not waking up again until the sun was streaking into the room around the edges of the tightly closed curtains. She could wake Leonard up with little kisses along his collarbone, since both of them were only wearing the underwear they'd worn under their prom outfits…but Penny was aware of the fact that she didn't 'anticipate' things like that when she dreamt, she never dreamt about being asleep, and so clearly she wasn't.

Penny's skin crawled as she remained completely still and held her breath and waited. She didn't want to make any noise. She had to be imagining it.

But Leonard wasn't moving, and he wasn't breathing.

Just as Penny thought about sitting up, he did snort a little and his chest inflated. He breathed in almost silently, maybe through his mouth, and he gave her hand an involuntary squeeze. Was that what had woken her earlier, she wondered? Had he stirred just like this? How much time had just passed?

She carefully eased herself up to a sitting position without releasing her fingers from his or changing the pressure on his hand. Penny didn't want to wake him; she wanted to watch him. Her heart was beating rapidly, painfully in her chest as she sat in the dark and looked over her shoulder slightly, back towards his face. It was turned towards her, and he was snoring lightly again.

Had she dreamed it? She knew she was definitely sober. Neither of them had drunk much other than the punch at the prom, and Sheldon had only spiked it with juice. Without letting go of Leonard's hand, Penny reached around to the side table for her phone. Trying to keep it low at her side so that the light didn't bother him, she unlocked the screen and looked at the time; it wasn't even quarter to five. Penny could have been asleep for less than ten minutes.

Had rolling Leonard onto his back made him not be able to breathe properly?

Penny bit her bottom lip and stared back at him, wide-eyed and doing her best not to worry. She sat and did absolutely nothing for what her phone soon informed her was five minutes, before it happened again. Leonard breathed out, then nothing. Penny counted a very inaccurate, shaky thirty seconds inside her head before he inhaled. This time when he squeezed her hand she squeezed it back, reassuring herself that he was fine. Maybe this was normal.

Except that not breathing for thirty seconds in the middle of the night, at least twice in an hour, couldn't possibly be normal. That was never normal.

"Okay, don't panic," Penny whispered. Leonard was asleep and he didn't know anything about this. He wasn't even waking up properly, and this wasn't an emergency, it was just a problem, just a quiet, eerie, middle-of-the-night kind of problem. How long had this been going on for, she wondered? Penny had never noticed. Could he die? In any case, it had to be connected to the snoring and this so-called allergy problem with his sinuses. It had to all be connected and in the morning Penny was ordering him to a doctor. This was not one of those situations where he could just go to the drug store and get lots of medicine for 'the usual', because apparently he was an expert in hay fever and allergies and he didn't need to see a doctor 'every time'. Pfft.

Penny didn't go back to sleep. When it happened again at nine minutes past five, she was ready with the stopwatch on her phone. She let it count for her while she just sat and stared at his peaceful face and fought the urge to grip his hand. She was filled with a growing sense of just how bad this was when it seemed to be taking ages for Leonard to wake himself up again. Tears filled her eyes as she wished him to breathe. This was really scary, and she was the one who had rolled him onto his back and probably caused it, but now she didn't want to touch him just in case she did something to make it even worse.

But when a quick glance at her phone informed her that thirty seconds had passed and they were well on the way to the minute mark, Penny couldn't handle holding her own breath anymore. She would make him breathe with her if it was the last thing she did. She dropped her phone and laid her newly free hand on his stomach. She shook gently as she squeezed his hand.

"Leonard," she said. Nothing. Not that she had spoken very loud, she wasn't sure she had spoken at all if she was honest with herself, but still there was no response and Penny did panic then. A tear trickled down her cheek, the hand at his stomach flattened and pushed downward, and her fingernails dug sharply into the top of his hand. "Leonard!" she insisted more firmly.

It worked, he stirred and gasped and sucked in what Penny thought was a huge breath, but he still didn't wake up and as she started to cry in frustration. She took her hand off his stomach to swipe at her flushed, damp face and she looked behind her at the phone. The stopwatch was still going, it was up to a minute and twenty seconds, which meant he had stopped breathing for a full minute, or thereabouts. She switched it off with a shaking swipe of her index finger across the screen. Now all she had to do was wake him up.

Penny still gripped Leonard's hand and laid her other hand on his face. She stroked his cheek gently. She didn't want to jolt Leonard awake like she had just done to get him to inhale, so she chose the alternative, which was to drop lingering, salty kisses along his cheek and jaw and finally at his lips. She whispered his name and tried hard to pull herself together.

When Leonard moaned as she kissed under his chin and nuzzled the stubbly underside of his jaw, Penny knew she had succeeded. Leonard's far arm lifted and slid over her waist and around her bare upper back. He held her over him and pulled her down on top of him like everything was normal, displaying his usual strength and the warmth of skin-on-skin, full body contact that Penny hadn't expected considering what she had just seen and heard, or not heard.

"What time is it?" he asked, groggy and still half-asleep.

Penny opened her mouth to answer but she was overtired and overwhelmed, and all she could do was bury her head against his neck and cry. It was a different kind of crying, too. Penny never cried like this with Leonard or with anyone else. She had cried to him about stupid ex-boyfriends and break-ups and broken-down cars and bad auditions. There had been happier tears after she finally said 'I love you', or sometimes when he got emotional it made her cry, but this was different. This was a mixture of relieved and worried sobbing and it was loud and it wasn't petty, or pretty, and it really physically ached.

"Penny?" Leonard asked. His voice was thick and congested but it came through clearer, he was wide awake, and that was all Penny cared about as she finally let go of his hand and allowed him to hug her fully. He scratched fingers gently through her short hair and didn't say a word for a long time.

Until the door opened.

"What's wrong?" Sheldon asked, curious and concerned. He hadn't even knocked, so Penny knew she had worried him. "I heard Penny crying."

"I don't know buddy," Leonard replied softly as he continued to rub her bare back and massage her neck to soothe her. He only let go of her back long enough to reach for the sheet at their hips, to tug it higher up around their chests. Penny took a deep breath and kept her head turned away from Leonard's very caring roommate. She cared about Sheldon a lot in turn but she did not want to discuss this with him, at least not until she had put clothes on and talked to Leonard about what had happened first, in private.

"Leonard-"

"Shh Penny," he told her, before returning his attention to Sheldon. "Sheldon, we're fine. Penny's okay. It was probably just a bad dream, sorry it woke you."

"Oh, okay," he said. "Here," he added.

Leonard said thanks and released his hold on Penny again; to take whatever Sheldon had picked up to give him. Penny soon realised it was the box of tissues from the table on her side of the bed. Leonard returned his arm to the hug without even putting it down. He held the box against her ass over the sheet with his arm wrapped around her, and Penny felt herself calming. He was breathing underneath her; he was supporting almost all of her weight and being so sweet. She was breathing deeply too. Everything was okay now.

Sheldon left, and Leonard quickly urged Penny to sit up.

"I'll be right back, sorry," he promised as he scrambled out of bed and headed out of the room to go to the toilet. Penny chuckled, and found the tissues in the dark to blow her nose and wipe at her eyes. Her face felt puffy and hot. Good job keeping it cool, Penny, she told herself as she felt the final few sobs she had held in subside, reabsorbed into her body in some way or somehow. "I'm back," Leonard said, returning after she heard the toilet flush and tap run.

Penny pushed herself back to sit against the headboard as Leonard put on his glasses and switched on a lamp. He handed her his white dress shirt from the previous evening and then located a t-shirt for himself before he climbed back into bed. Penny was just doing up the buttons of his shirt over her chest when Leonard rested a hand on her thigh and the back of her neck and urged her to look at him in the dim lamplight.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I should be asking you that," she said. Leonard frowned at her curiously. "You're not sleeping properly."

"What?" he asked. "What do you mean?"

"Well you were snoring on your side, and so I rolled you onto your back and you stopped, but then you stopped breathing altogether, then you started again, then you stopped, then you started. You weren't breathing for a really long time, Leonard, like a minute. I didn't know what to do, so I woke you up."

"Are…are you sure?" Leonard asked. Penny squeezed her eyes shut and nodded, and at the sight of her about to cry again Leonard panicked. "Okay, okay, it's okay," he whispered. He shifted closer to her on the bed.

"I'm not making it up," she said sadly.

"No, no, I believe you Penny, it's okay. I'm sorry. I am so sorry-"

"It's not your fault, but please don't go back to sleep tonight."

"I won't," Leonard assured her. "It's after five, we can just have an early morning, okay?" He pulled her into a hug as they sat in bed together. "You can go back to sleep if you want," he mentioned. "It's still dark, I'll stay up-"

"No," Penny said as she shook her head. "Let's just, I dunno, make some tea and go into the living room and watch TV."

"Okay," Leonard agreed, but before she could move he gripped her wrist and looked at her. "Penny, how many times?" he asked.

"Um…three that I know of, I think. You never really woke up, it's just like you remembered again that you should be breathing, so you did. It was only the last time that it was for a minute, and it's probably the longest minute of my life so far, out of all of them. And the most terrifying thing I've ever seen."

"It sounds like I might have sleep apnea," Leonard said. "It's when the airway gets blocked and the back of the throat collapses during sleep. Maybe…maybe it's these sinus problems? I feel like I could blow half my head out my left nostril and I just woke up. I need a steam."

Penny shrugged. She didn't care what it was as long as he had woken up and it didn't happen again.

"I want you to see a doctor," she said. "I know it's probably the season and your allergies flaring up and it's just like you said, but I need some peace of mind now Leonard. You stopped breathing and I was right next to you, do you get that? The silence? And after last night was just so perfect, I was scared."

"Hey, hey," he said softly as he held her hand. "Don't worry Penny, I'll go to the doctor. I'll even go to the hospital today if you want me to, since it's a weekend and my clinic is probably closed…we'll get it seen to. I promise it is not going to kill me but I never, ever want to hear you crying like that again. That scared me too, beautiful."

His voice shook and tears filled his eyes, Penny felt her sympathetic nervous system kick in immediately as she nodded and sobbed into her free hand a few times. So much for those last few sobs going away. Nope, they had just been lying in wait so that she could embarrass herself again.

"Come on sweetheart, Penny, please don't cry," Leonard urged. "I'll get the tissues and my nasal spray. You get the quilt and put the kettle on, and we'll find a movie suitable for this early in the morning."

"You can pick," she said. Anything to keep him engaged and awake would do.

An hour later, when Sheldon emerged at his usual time Penny felt much happier, and it had a lot to do with the sounds of disgust and discomfort that Leonard was making from underneath the towel stretched over his head as he leant over a bowl of steaming hot water on the coffee table.

"I think I have an infection," he said in a throaty, nasal voice, before he coughed and spluttered through the steam. "All that cold air, on the roof. This is not pretty. Tissue please," he requested with an outstretched arm. Penny handed him one and it disappeared beneath the towel, though she heard it being used and she scrunched up her own nose at the grotty sound.

"Is Leonard sick?" Sheldon asked from the entrance to the living room. He had frozen in place and was looking between them warily.

"Relax, it's another sinus infection, I'm not contagious," Leonard mumbled from beneath his towel. They had decided not to tell Sheldon about the sleep apnea, because Leonard particularly did not fancy waking up during the night to find Sheldon standing over him, making sure that he was still breathing.

"And I'm taking him to the hospital later today to confirm," Penny said.

"Why don't you just go now?" Sheldon asked. "If you're going to the hospital I assume you mean the emergency room, and that's open all the time. Also, it's better to know if you have an illness as soon as possible so that you can begin treatment. Why wait? Are you still upset, Penny?"

"I'm fine," she assured him. They had made a decision about that story too. "I had a bad dream that Leonard was hurt and it upset me a lot. I didn't mean to wake you up. Leonard wanted to do a steam and have a cup of tea and breakfast before we went anywhere."

"Before a doctor pokes anything up my disgusting nose," Leonard spluttered out amid a snort, still sounding as though he had a nasty, solid head cold. If anything, the steam was making him sound worse. "Which is running non-stop thank you very much. Don't worry Sheldon, Penny's looking after me."

Penny felt possessive and defensive at those words. She laid a hand on Leonard's back, as though to underline his point to Sheldon, perhaps unfairly.

"Oh, that's only proper, I suppose," Sheldon said. He looked between them as though he wasn't sure whether he was being told the whole story, like he sensed something wasn't quite right but he didn't know what the protocol was in the situation. Did he ask about it? Did he challenge them? Did he just make them more tea? Penny couldn't meet his eyes, and Leonard hadn't moved.


	2. Chapter 2 of 3

Chapter Two

When she heard the knock on her front door, Penny jogged from her bedroom holding her flats in one hand and her jumper in the other. She threw the jumper over her bag on the sofa and stopped to put her shoes on. Leonard was early, she still had another ten minutes before they had agreed to meet to go to the hospital, both of them had needed to shower and dress first.

"Come in honey!" she called to him. She balanced on her right foot and was halfway through sticking her left shoe on when the door opened and not Leonard, but Amy, cautiously poked her head through.

"Hello-hello-hello!" Amy said with a grin. She let herself in and then looked at Penny getting ready to go out, while Penny stared at her, surprised. "You thought I was Leonard, didn't you," Amy said. She added a dreamy, "Honey."

"Uh, yeah," Penny said with a laugh. "But that's okay Amy. What's up?"

"I thought we could partake in that age-old tradition, which I only ever could have dreamed I'd participate in until this day, where we dissect every aspect of the prom in minute detail until we're fit to bursting with nostalgia and happiness! I thought I'd see if you were free before I messaged Bernadette."

"Uh…o-kay," Penny said more warily. Ordinarily she would have been all in, and she hated to let Amy down, but-

"Sheldon told me he loves me!" Amy blurted out before Penny could even complete her thought. "He said it right to my face," Amy went on. "I didn't even have to say it first. I mean, I was trying to, and then he just came out and said, 'I love you too'. He loves me! I'll tell Bernadette later but he loves me, Penny!"

"Oh my God," Penny said under her breath, stunned. She stared wide-eyed at Amy with her jaw slack as Amy simply grinned and bounced up and down, so excited she could barely contain herself. "When did he say it?" Penny asked.

"Last night, before we joined you on the roof. I wanted to tell you earlier but first I was in shock, and then I couldn't get you and Bernadette alone, and you and Leonard looked like you were having a really loving couples' night and I didn't want to take anything away from that, but oh my God I can't hold it in anymore, Sheldon said he loves me. To my face! And I didn't use any tricks!"

"Amy, that's wonderful," Penny said, allowing herself to gush and be happy for her friend. Shoes now on, she closed the distance between them and hugged Amy tightly. "That's a big breakthrough for Sheldon," she added. "I have to admit, a small part of me didn't think he would ever get there. I knew he loved you, I just didn't know if he knew. Does that make sense?"

"Yes! I was afraid of that too, but he knows and he's okay with it. He was so…brave. I still can't believe it. That was the best prom ever!"

"Amy, I want to hear absolutely every detail," Penny promised as her hug firmed, because she was about to let her friend down in a big way. "But is there any chance we can please do this tonight? Leonard and I are on our way to the hospital."

"What?" Amy asked. She quickly ended the hug to stare up at Penny with wide brown eyes. "Is anything wrong?"

"No, no," Penny said as she waved a dismissive hand about her face. "Leonard's sinuses have flared up with an infection or something, his doctor's surgery is closed today so we're just going to the ER to get it checked out."

"You're going to the emergency room for sinus inflammation?" Amy asked. She frowned curiously. "Surely Leonard has a decongestant and antihistamine that would ordinarily be prescribed for such a thing-"

"He has, like, ten, and some are out of date. We're getting something new."

"But you could just go to the pharmacy," Amy reasoned. "Why sit in the ER for what could be hours? It's the weekend; everyone will be there trying to see a doctor. If Leonard's had these flare-ups before, and I know that he has, why is he worried? He knows what he should do. Does he think it's gotten worse?"

"No, he doesn't think it, I know it," Penny said before she could reign in her defensiveness. Why was everyone they spoke to suddenly an expert on what to do about sinus infections? Everyone just had to be a friggin' genius about it!

"I don't understand," Amy said with a frown.

Penny sighed. As she looked into Amy's earnest, intelligent brown eyes she felt her wall coming down. They weren't telling Sheldon, but that didn't mean Penny couldn't tell Amy, right?

"His snoring's gotten much worse," Penny began. Amy cocked her head thoughtfully to one side and fiddled with the bag slung over her shoulder. "And it's not just that," Penny continued. "He is really congested, especially first thing in the morning. He's been using his nasal sprays a lot more, apparently, and he's been getting headaches…something's just been 'off' for a while."

"Well sure," Amy said. "But that's still nothing you couldn't tell a properly trained pharmacist. If he has an infection he might benefit from antibiotics but they're not usually prescribed for sinus infections, and it's not urgent. Some painkillers and decongestants should help clear it up until he can get an appointment with his doctor."

"No, it's not that," Penny said on a sigh. She bit her bottom lip and sat on the arm of the chair. She ran her hands anxiously up and down her jeans, along her thighs, and looked at Amy seriously. "You can't tell Sheldon," she began.

"Whoa, what's going on?" Amy asked. She took her bag off and put it beside the coffee table, still standing opposite Penny. "What can't I tell Sheldon?"

"It's just, Sheldon will freak out and start obsessing and Leonard and I don't want to worry him yet until we have a plan. We don't want him to be scared."

"Understood but now I'm scared, go on," Amy said with a sturdy nod.

"Okay," Penny replied. She took a deep breath. "Leonard's been having these moments where he's asleep and he'll stop breathing, and then he'll sort of re-start himself after a few seconds, a minute or so, and he'll go on as normal until it happens again, and he stops breathing."

"Sleep apnea," Amy quickly inferred. "Most common among middle aged, overweight men. Also common among evening drinkers as alcohol is a depressant and relaxes the throat muscles. I'd also suggest that sinus inflammation or infection is a valid causal factor, because of its ability to block airways, especially if he's extremely congested and sleeping on his back."

"That's what I did," Penny said sadly. "He was snoring so loudly on his side that I rolled him onto his back…but Leonard isn't overweight, he's actually lost a little weight, and you know he's not a big drinker, neither of us drank much last night."

"You stayed with him last night and saw this happen, didn't you," Amy said. Penny nodded, wide-eyed and tearful. "I see," Amy added on a sigh.

"It was so scary, and quiet," Penny told her. "I've never been more scared of anything in my entire life. This sounds stupid but it's the closest I've come to death, and I know he's fine and I looked it up on my phone and I know he's not going to actually die from it…but I don't think I'll sleep properly until I've had it checked and I've spoken to someone who's going to tell me that he's going to be okay."

"How does Leonard feel about it?"

"He was kind of surprised, I think," Penny said with a shrug. "He's being great about it, mostly I think because I was so ridiculously upset I ended up scaring him too, when he finally woke up. I think he's concerned, though. It's probably not the greatest thing your fiancée can tell you in bed; 'guess what honey, you stopped breathing last night…isn't that great?' So all in all, we're just going to the ER so that we can see someone today, and get the best nasal spray or antibiotics or even just to get some advice. I really need it."

"I can imagine how frightening that must have been for you," Amy said softly. "And Leonard. I guess it won't help if I assure you that it is really common…it's actually more common in men than asthma."

"Well he's got that too!" Penny said with a laugh as she threw her hands up in a huff. "And the steam he bends over to clean out his sinuses just makes his asthma worse because of the super-high humidity, so then he has to use his inhaler. All my previous boyfriends were so into their bodies and medically the worst thing that ever happened to them were sports injuries, grazes or pulled muscles, the odd dislocation. I never worried about them not breathing. This is…way beyond any of that, for me. What if it's something really, really bad?"

"What do you mean, like a tumour?" Amy asked, unable to help the twitch of her lip as it turned upwards in a smirk. Brain tumours were her thing, after all. Penny rolled her eyes and sighed, but effectively yes, that is what she had meant. "It's highly unlikely that Leonard's symptoms are being caused by any sort of nasopharyngeal mass," Amy explained. "Has he had any nosebleeds?"

"Not that I know of, but we're not spending every night together, so I have no idea how long this has been going on for or how bad it is. I only get glimpses, glimpses which have been getting progressively more worrying until last night when he stopped breathing…for a minute, a whole minute!"

"Okay bestie, calm down and take a breath," Amy assured her. She took a step forward so that they were closer, and waited for Penny to find the courage and composure to look into her eyes. "Trust Leonard's instincts," Amy said. "He knows his nose better than you or anyone else. But you're doing the right thing going to get it checked out, and to answer your earlier question, yes, we can postpone the all-important prom debrief until later."

"And you won't tell Sheldon?" Penny asked. "He knows about the sinus infection but not the sleep apnea. He woke up to the sound of me sobbing into Leonard's neck this morning. Poor Leonard didn't even know what was going on yet, but I know Sheldon was worried…I said I had a bad dream. I promise, once we know, we will say something. We just don't want him to panic."

"You're right, he would panic. I won't tell him," Amy agreed.

Penny smiled as she calmed and held out her pinkie. Amy's mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide.

"You want me to pinkie-swear?" she asked with reverence.

"Hell yeah," Penny said with a hopeful grin.

"Wow, this is-"

"Just do it, Amy."

Amy linked her pinkie finger through Penny's and they shook, both smiling.

"Thank you," Penny said softly. "I really needed to get that off my chest, again."

"No worries bestie," Amy assured her. "I'm here for you. And you should take some magazines or a book to read, because you're going to be waiting in the ER for awhile."

"Good idea," Penny said as she stood. She leant over the coffee table to select from her collection. "Hey," she continued eagerly. "That means Sheldon will be free for a few hours. You can go and hang out with him."

"Ooh, I like that plan," Amy said. "He won't like it, it's not on our schedule, but I don't give a crap about that today. I'm going to gatecrash his day like a loved-up rebel!"

"He loves you, he'll tolerate it," Penny assured her. "Just point out that he tolerates me all the time, and you are a way better companion than me."

There was a quick knock on the door and before Amy could reply Leonard had let himself in.

"Sorry I'm late. Had a long shower then blew my nose for- Oh, hi Amy," Leonard said when he finally noticed her standing awkwardly between them. "How are you?"

"Terrific!" Amy said with a wide grin. Penny chuckled when Amy turned to her and said, "Bestie, should I tell him?"

"Go ahead," Penny replied with a nod.

"Tell me wh-"

"Sheldon said he loves me!" Amy announced.

"W-w-what?" Leonard asked. He looked to Penny for clarification and she nodded at his dumfounded face as she put her loose jumper on and retrieved her handbag and several new magazines. She rolled them up and they stuck out the top of her bag, but that would do.

"Isn't that great?" Penny said encouragingly to Leonard. "Sheldon, telling Amy that he loves her. Can you believe it? Our Sheldon…in love!"

"That's amazing," Leonard said as he rubbed his jaw. "I'm actually stunned. Um…congrats?"

"Thank you!" Amy said. She yanked Leonard forward for a hug and then pushed him away, before turning to Penny and delivering her the same treatment. "I'm going over there!" she told them. "And I promise I won't say a thing, and oh my gosh good luck at the hospital and I really hope it's not too busy and I'm sure it's all going to be just fine…because Sheldon said he loves me!" She squeaked, delirious and happy, and hurried out of the apartment.

Penny smiled at Leonard and jangled her keys.

"Shall we go?" she asked more calmly. Leonard nodded and smiled. By the time they got into the hallway, Amy was nowhere to be seen. "You sound better," Penny continued on, as they made their way down the stairs.

"I should hope so. I was saying that after my long shower I blew my nose for what felt like forever, and then I had to use my inhaler again, and I didn't want to come over here too wheezy so I sat and talked to Sheldon for a bit. I feel pretty good, I sound better… It's definitely worse first thing in the morning."

"Well let's see how we go," Penny said. She reached for his hand and saw him smile out of the corner of his eye. "What?" she asked.

"You told Amy, didn't you," he said.

"It's okay, I made her pinkie-swear not to tell Sheldon any more than he already knows. She won't break the pinkie-swear, it's sacred."

"I don't doubt it," Leonard assured her. "I was more going to make sure you were all right."

"Fine," she said softly. "I had a moment in my own shower, I felt a bit shaky…just tired, I think. I'm not overreacting, am I? Amy said to trust your instincts, and I do, but-"

"You're not the only one who needs peace of mind now," Leonard said. "You're not overreacting, Penny. I am so sorry. If I looked over in the middle of the night at your beautiful…at your face, and it was quiet and still and you…you weren't…I mean…I wouldn't…actually, let's not talk about it."

"Sounds good to me," Penny whispered as he gripped her hand tightly. She knew exactly what he had meant to say, and she didn't want him to cry.

"Just…when this is all over, remind me to change my will," he said with more composure. "You're not in it and you absolutely should be."

"You have a will?" Penny asked, wide-eyed. "I don't have one. I want one too."

"Okay good," Leonard said. "And now we're really not talking about it. Please."

"No, let's talk about Sheldon and Amy. Shamy's in love!" Penny said, giggling softly with a mixture of disbelief and awe, just as they reached the lobby. Leonard laughed as well, and they allowed themselves to be distracted by talk of Sheldon and what a big breakthrough this was for him. They shared their thoughts about what might happen next for the entire drive to the hospital.

By the time they reached the waiting room, filled in the necessary forms and had been put in the not unreasonably long queue, Leonard and Penny had determined that it was unlikely anything would change between Sheldon and Amy now for a while. Sheldon would probably need some guidance on what was expected of him next, and then time to prepare himself for that, and Amy would settle back down, maybe a little disillusioned, but she wouldn't give up.

"Can you imagine what they'll be like one day if they get married?" Penny asked, scrunching up her nose as she crossed her legs and flicked through one of the magazines she had brought. "Do you think they would schedule…you know…alone time?"

"Alone-together or alone-apart?" Leonard asked. "Either way, I'd say yes. There would be a chart. It would be colour-coded. You know how we are in the shower? That would never happen."

"Eeeeew, now I'm picturing it!" Penny said. She stuck her tongue out in mock disgust as Leonard chuckled and reached over to rub her thigh.

As they waited, Leonard was reading a comic book he had found in the waiting room. It probably wasn't very good but it was better for him than the magazines Penny had brought. Yet he kept his hand on her thigh and every few minutes, absent-mindedly stroked her leg through the fabric of her pants. Penny was watching out of the corner of her eye as she tried to focus (but failed) on the article she was reading. Again, it was something that Sheldon would never do with Amy, at least not naturally. Penny was a little sad for Amy in that way, but then again Amy was the most patient and persistent girlfriend ever; if she wanted something to happen, one day it eventually would.

Penny put down her magazine after finally losing interest in the article. She returned it to the bag between her feet, took Leonard's hand in her lap, and shut her eyes for a power nap in the uncomfortable waiting room chairs.

She woke to his name being called, and sat through Leonard explaining all of his symptoms and medical history to the doctor. He even asked Penny a few questions about Leonard's snoring and the not breathing part and Penny gave him as many details as she could, though it wasn't much because she didn't spend every night with Leonard, so she really couldn't answer that all-important question of, 'do you know how long it's been happening for?' She felt bad about that, but there was no point trying to explain their living arrangements to anyone who didn't also know Sheldon.

"All right," the doctor said once he had all the information he needed. "Leonard, the sort of discharge you're describing that's come on today with the steam treatment is consistent with a sinus infection, as are the headaches, but it's not your first one in recent months or years, and since you've also been having problems sleeping comfortably, what I'd like to do is get a look at your nasal cavity. I use a little instrument called a nasal speculum to open your nostrils and we then thread in a camera with a light on the end, and I'll be able to see what sort of blockage we're dealing with very quickly. It will be uncomfortable, and you're probably quite tender so there might be some pain…it would only be for a couple of minutes. We'll go in, take some pictures and see what's what, then get right back out again to talk about treatment options, and Penny can stay."

"Okay," Leonard said with a nervous shrug. Once the doctor left to organise an examination room and equipment, Leonard turned to Penny and said, "I've never had a camera up my nose before".

"Ever?" she asked. "With your history? That actually surprises me."

It had surprised the doctor too, but an hour later as Penny watched the doctor focus on the screen in front of them both, she realised that this doctor looked less and less surprised.

One of Penny's hands rested on Leonard's forehead and gently stroked his hair back as he kept his eyes closed and focused on breathing calmly through his mouth. She was holding his glasses in her other hand. She knew he was in pain, but she was trying to silently reassure him that it would be over soon. Penny was also interested to watch what the doctor was doing, and what she was seeing on the screen. Penny watched him caption several images without understanding what they were of, and less than five minutes since the instruments went into Leonard's nose, they were out, and he was wiping blood and snot away with a tissue.

Charming, Penny thought. That's my Prince Charming, all right.

The doctor kindly gave Leonard time to gather himself and returned fifteen minutes later with the images printed, and several sheets of paper in his hands.

"How are we doing?" he asked.

"All right I think," Leonard said from beneath the tissues still clasped to the base of his nose. He had put his glasses back on and was sitting up on the bed.

"It's a weird feeling to have us up your nose, I know," the doctor agreed as he sat down. Penny perched beside Leonard on the bed. "Okay, Leonard, you said earlier you'd never broken your nose?"

"That's right," he said with a nod.

"Have you ever hurt it without breaking it?" he asked. "Have you fallen in the last few months? Walked into anything? Tripped? Been in any car accidents?"

"No," he said with a frown. "Why?"

"You actually have a deviated septum," he said. "It's quite clear. The thin wall that separates your nasal passages is displaced to the left. You said you've been sleeping more on your left side lately, and you used to be more of a back or right side sleeper, and that's probably why; you can naturally breathe much easier through your right nostril. It either exists from birth, or in adults we usually see it as the result of some kind of trauma. The other thing is you might have had this for possibly a year or more and not realised, and it's only age and the continued infections that have made it worse over time."

"Um…" Leonard hummed in thought. He removed the tissues from his nose, which had stopped running and bleeding, and glanced at Penny. "There was a time a few years ago where I did run face-first into a door…I was trying to talk to Penny who was on her way out, I think. And I walked into a wall inside the apartment as well. I'd been trying out these contact lenses and I lost my depth and distance perception for a while. I didn't think I'd hurt myself very badly."

"Could he have just knocked this septum-thingie out of place?" Penny asked. "And it's been getting worse over time, like you said?" She remembered the incident with the contact lenses; Leonard had been with Priya, and those contacts had been her idea. That bitch.

"It's likely," the doctor replied with a kind smile. "The good news is that it's easily fixed with a very quick operation called a septoplasty, where basically the septum is just repositioned between your nostrils. It's day surgery. We use general anaesthetic but looking at your deviation, Leonard, it looks very simple, you'd probably only be unconscious for one to two hours. It's very low-risk, and if you choose to have it done, then afterwards you should notice a significant improvement. It obviously won't cure any allergies; it won't take away your symptoms entirely. However, it will make life a lot more bearable, and will cut down on the recurrence of serious infections, certainly the congestion, the snoring, the apnea…it should all drastically improve."

"So do we need to see a specialist?" Penny asked, hoping that Leonard could have the surgery as soon as possible. "Is there one in this hospital we can see this week?"

The doctor smirked at her briefly before stating, "You're looking at him. I'm the ear, nose and throat specialist on call. I worked this ED for years before I specialized a few years ago now, and today I'm covering for my very desperate and grateful housemate, who just happened to come down with food poisoning at six a.m. and who owes me a lovely bottle of wine once she's better. What can I say, it's your lucky day Leonard."

"I'm ecstatic," Leonard deadpanned, causing Penny to chuckle kindly.


	3. Chapter 3 - Final

Chapter Three

An hour and a half later, after also stopping at the grocery store on the way home, Penny and Leonard had parked the car down the street from the apartment and were making the slow walk to the front door. Penny's head was swimming with information about the surgery and her tired mind was on reading the pamphlets and the pre-op information sheets that the doctor had given Leonard; Penny wanted to know what needed to be doing and what was going to happen as well.

Leonard opened the door to the apartment's lobby and held it for her, and she smiled at him and jolted herself out of her daydream. Once she was through, she handed him one of the calico bags and they took one bag of groceries each up the stairs.

"How's the nose?" she asked.

"It still feels like there's something shoved up in it," he said. Penny laughed at him as he whined. It would be back in shape in no time. "Listen," Leonard continued as they slowly climbed. "We're going to have to be up front with Sheldon, but he hates hospitals and he hates the idea of surgery and general anesthetic and death in general. It scares him. So when we tell him about this, we just have to be very straight, and very calm, and very, very cool. Still no mention of the sleep apnea, we just talk about the sinus infections. We present it as, 'this is what's happening, Sheldon, it's a simple surgery and it's not a big deal'. He'll probably make it a big deal anyway, but whatever."

"I can do that," Penny promised with a smile. "The surgery isn't actually a big deal at all, it's going to be quick, and it was pretty funny to see up your nose."

"It hurt, that's what."

"Aw, my poor baby," she teased, playfully pouting at him as they reached the second floor landing. "But the doctor was really nice. He's going to do a good job, and it's very lucky that we came out of that ER with a surgery date. I was afraid it might take weeks when he first said you'd need surgery. Imagine if we hadn't gone to the ER? We'd have had to go to your GP, then get a referral, then make a specialist appointment, then wait for the appointment, and then maybe we'd have a surgery date. Now it's happening next week, huzzah!"

"In the meantime I'm going to try what he said about sleeping propped up, sitting up. I'll probably still end up on my left side again and again-"

"Well he said sleeping on your side is okay," Penny reminded him. "You'll snore like a trooper, but you'll hugely reduce the chance of the apnea happening in the night. Do you want me to stay?" she asked. That way she could stop him from rolling onto his back; she certainly wouldn't do it again.

"No," he said as he shook his head. "Penny, I want you to sleep. One of us needs to be sleeping properly through the night, and you won't do that if you are there with me and I'm snoring and snuffling and dripping all over you."

"Yes but-"

"You being there won't change the sleep apnea. If it happens, it happens, and it's probably been happening for a while. I know you'll lie in your own bed thinking about it, but try not to. Please Penny, it's fine. I'm sure once I get this fixed it will go away, but the doctor did give us a pamphlet for a sleep clinic so once I'm recovered if we're still concerned I can go and get tested overnight."

"Okay, deal," Penny said. They reached the third floor landing and before Leonard could go any further, Penny stopped him and put her bag of groceries down. She took his out of his hands and put it down as well. "Wait," she said. "Before we go up there and I'm totally cool and all positive in a matter-of-fact, this-is-how-it-is kind of way, there's something not-so-calm that I need to get out of my system first. I apologise in advance to your nose."

"Okay," Leonard said with a curious frown. Penny grinned at him for half a second before she took his jaw in her hands and pressed her lips so firmly to his that he thumped back against the wall of the stairwell. They chuckled, but then Leonard opened his mouth and Penny deepened the kiss. It was the reassurance Penny had been craving all day, and she molded herself to him and kissed him as though he could disappear at any moment. Leonard held her and kissed her back, but he let her take control as though he understood.

Penny pulled herself away only when her lungs began to ache, and she sucked in deep breaths of oxygen and panted heavily. Leonard was catching his breath as well, but he was also grinning so smugly and proudly at her that she ducked her head against his chest, embarrassed at her open neediness.

"Wow," Leonard said as he affectionately squeezed her arms. "Penny, I think you just deviated my septum!"

Penny burst out laughing before she even had time to be shocked by the joke. It broke the tension, stopped her worrying about herself, and it was Leonard's way of reassuring her that he wasn't going anywhere. In case she still wasn't satisfied, he wrapped her back in his arms for a hug that lasted long, quiet seconds, until Penny thought she felt herself drifting off to sleep and snapped back to attention. Time to face Sheldon, and hopefully Amy, who was like his pit crew even if he didn't always notice her there working away beside him.

"Are you okay?" Penny asked Leonard as she quickly restyled her hair and smoothed her hands down her jumper. She picked up the groceries and handed him a bag. Leonard looked fine but was checking his clothing as well.

"Yes, you?" he asked hopefully. She smiled at him and nodded.

"I've got my party face on," she told him seriously. "Here's the plan. You do most of the explaining, I'll do most of the unpacking, and if you're lucky I'll even chime in with a cute comment or two. Sheldon won't know what hit him."

"Yeah, he will," Leonard admitted with a scrunch of his nose. "But good plan."

And it did go exactly to plan. As expected, Sheldon freaked out, Amy tried to reason with him, Penny unpacked and got cute, and Leonard was as patient with Sheldon as he always was, even after he later caught Sheldon staring at him in his sleep. Penny had laughed when Leonard had a whinge to her about it. Sheldon was so predictable, but deep down Penny was grateful that Leonard was being watched over, and if Sheldon hadn't said anything about Leonard's breathing, maybe the new nasal spray the doctor had given him in the lead-up to the surgery was actually helping with the apnea. Or maybe Sheldon just hadn't been there to witness it. Either way, she was grateful.

Penny had just gotten out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel two nights later when she heard her front door open and close.

"Penny?"

"In here!" she called to Leonard. She met him in the bedroom and started rifling under her pillows with one hand in search of her pyjamas; the other hand held her towel in place.

"I love it when your hair's all wet and shaggy like that, it's so cute," Leonard said in greeting. He sat on the bed with a sigh. "Sheldon's over there calculating the chances of me dying in surgery."

"Terrific," Penny said under her breath. He glanced at her and she pulled a face on Sheldon's behalf, before she dropped the towel to the bed and got into her pyjamas. She didn't care if Leonard watched; he was just there for kind company and frankly she couldn't blame him. Sheldon could be Captain Negative when it suited him. "Do you want to stay tonight?" she asked.

"Yeah, actually, I do," Leonard said softly, blushing. "If that's okay."

"Of course," Penny said. She finished dressing and sat down on the bed beside him. It wasn't even that late. "I was just going to have a quiet dinner myself and to go bed early. I wasn't sure I'd see you. I'd love for you to stay, and I promise I'll sleep and not watch you all night like a crazy person."

"It's okay, you're allowed to if you really can't help yourself," Leonard said with a laugh. "I won't think it's creepy if I wake up with you looming above me."

"Ah, but if I really was 'looming' like Sheldon does I think you'd be a little creeped out," she said with a laugh. "It's a good thing I don't loom, I merely observe…but really, I won't freak out if you stay, you have my word."

"Then don't freak out when I tell you this either," Leonard said. "I have some news. The doctor called today. A spot has opened up in his calendar and he can do the surgery this week instead of next week."

"When?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"What?" Penny asked.

"I said yes."

"Tomorrow morning?" she asked.

"Yes. There was a cancellation and he said my surgery fits right into the gap, he knows we were keen to get it done as soon as possible, and so all I need to do is have a light, early dinner and then fast until my appointment first-thing. Can you take me? You don't have to stay, I can get a cab home-"

"No, no, don't be silly, I'm staying. I'll be with you the whole day."

"Okay," Leonard said with a cautious smile. "Thanks."

"Wow, tomorrow," she said softly. "Did you tell Sheldon?"

"No, he's too busy figuring out the risk of me dying next week, he's delighting in it actually...don't poke the bear."

"Have, um, have you packed a bag?" Penny asked, trying to think of everything she had read on the information sheets that Leonard now had in his possession. She couldn't even double-check anything with him.

"I don't need to, remember? It's going to take like ninety minutes in the theatre, then a few hours observation, then I can come home."

"Right, right," Penny said softly. She ran her anxious hands through her damp, short hair, pushing it back. "Okay so…dinner then? What would you like?"

"Whatever you were going to have is fine."

"Oh come on, your last meal before maybe lunch, but probably dinner tomorrow, and you're totally okay if I make peanut butter on toast?"

"Yep," Leonard said with a smile. "Extra crunchy please."

Penny laughed and threw an arm around his shoulders.

"You're an idiot," she said, before planting a wet, noisy kiss on his cheek. Then she wiped it off tenderly and observed his profile with a gentle smile.

Leonard looked so much more confident within himself these days, and she knew it was because they were in a good place, and engaged, and he felt safe. She did too. Still, she could see the flicker of nerves in the way his strong jaw was more tense than normal, and the way his brown eyes darted sideways in order to figure out what she was doing just sitting there. She kissed his cheek softly again before she stood.

"Come on then, handsome," she said, leading him back to the living room and kitchen. "Do you want to put something on TV?"

"No, it's okay. Let's just talk."

"All right," Penny said. It wouldn't exactly take her long to prepare dinner, and she smiled when Leonard reached over and snatched a pear from her fruit bowl. They really were eating low-key tonight, it seemed. Like a picnic, but if that was what he wanted then that was fine by her standards. "How are you feeling?" she asked him as he contemplated, but did not eat, the pear.

"Oh, I'm okay," Leonard said. "Not exactly feeling prepared but there's nothing more I can do. It will be good to have it over and done with, and it will be really good that this time tomorrow Sheldon won't still be brainstorming all the ways I might die. I'm okay with my mortality but I don't need it shoved in my face."

"Do you remember Professor Proton's funeral?" Penny asked. "How you said sometimes you worried about having regrets? Well, you don't have to worry about the one where you said no to marrying me anymore. That's something."

"I won't die, Penny," he said softly, surely. "One hour, two hours max."

"I know," she replied with a confident smile. She had to at least be confident that night, for him. He was nervous too. "But you can cross it off your list now."

"It's all crossed off," he assured her. "Hey, have you ever had surgery before? I've never asked."

"Nope," Penny said. "There's lots of times where I might have but didn't, like when Amy hit me with a bagful of coins, and when I dislocated my shoulder, and I dislocated it twice when I was younger too, which is why it pops out more easily now…but I've never had to be put under to fix any of it. I know it's not really a big deal, not if you're young and relatively healthy, and the shorter the operation the better. I'm positive you'll barely know you've been asleep."

"Plus they know about the apnea, I reminded the doctor again this afternoon, so they'll keep an eye on it," Leonard said. Penny grinned. "What?" he asked.

"So you have been a little bit worried about it, huh?"

"Yeah, between that and thinking Sheldon was sneaking into my room every half hour, I've been jumping at shadows some nights. I haven't slept so well."

"You'll sleep better here," Penny promised softly, wisely. "Do you want me to tell Sheldon?"

"No need, I told him I was coming over here on the way out. If we really are planning an early night, can we just pretend to be asleep when he comes looking for me?"

"Okay, but he's probably going to let himself in and stare at the both of us," Penny reasoned, but then she smiled and added, "But maybe I'll 'wake up' and you can keep pretending and I'll tell Sheldon that you're asleep and staying with me and to go home. I'll use my mother's look. That should work."

"Thanks," Leonard said with a tired smile. "I mean, I know he is calculating all this stuff because deep down he really is scared, and I'm his best friend and he's afraid of me dying and that's really sweet and I wish there was something I could do or say to ease his anxiety, but there really isn't. It's just frustrating."

"I know," Penny said softly. She reached out and covered his nearest hand with her own, the peanut butter and toast forgotten for the time being. "How do you think it makes me feel when Sheldon gets like this over you? I have to pretend to care less, to try to calm him down or balance him out. Like when you were off on the North Sea…we missed you, Leonard. I missed you desperately, you know that, but when it's just the two of us, me and Sheldon, mostly I have to be the strong and sensible one. Only whenever I am, he looks at me as though I don't care about you, as though you mean nothing to me. He can't see that inside I feel just as desperate, and I'm just as scared, and that I love you so much…sometimes I don't think he realises how much."

"He does, in his own way," Leonard said softly. "Before I left on that trip I gave him a talk about us, our feelings…I made him promise to look after you-"

"He told me," Penny whispered. "And he did look after me very well. I don't doubt that he understands and trusts what you feel about me, but sometimes I just don't think he understands and trusts my feelings for you."

"Sheldon just thinks that our friendship, him and me, is and always should be considered more valuable and stronger than any relationship we might have with a woman," Leonard said. "But I promise…he loves you too, Penny."

"I know, and he doesn't know what he would do without you, I get it," Penny said. She nodded and resumed her primary role as chef for the evening, of putting toast into the toaster. "I just wish it didn't make me feel so inadequate."

Leonard sighed and nodded, and they drifted into silence for several minutes. Penny got them both a glass of juice and filled the kettle up so that they could make a tea later on. The toast popped, and she handed Leonard the jar of crunchy peanut butter and a knife so that he could spread his own.

"I know!" he said suddenly. "We won't tell Sheldon the surgery is tomorrow."

"You have to, because you won't be able to drive him to work. Actually, I'll have to message Amy tonight and ask her. She knows what's going on better than anyone and she can control him…or try to, at least."

"I'll still tell him that I can't take him to work," Leonard said. "What if I say we have to be somewhere else though?"

"What, like the public library?" Penny asked. "Where else would we be going together at that time of morning?"

"What about the public pool?" Leonard asked. Penny scrunched up her nose.

"Um…that's random. Why would we be going to the public pool?" she asked.

"To swim, but who cares anyway? Sheldon is going to freak out about us going to the pool. He hates public swimming pools. He'll get so distracted and befuddled that it should buy us at least a couple of hours before he figures out something is wrong. What do you think?"

"I think I really don't want him sitting in a waiting room elevating my panic levels or disturbing my reading, so we may as well try anything," Penny said. "I'll clue-in Amy too. She'll need to run interference."

"Awesome," Leonard said with a grin. "I'm an evil genius, aren't I?"

"A little bit," she teased, as he handed her a slice of his toast. Hers was still toasting. Penny took it gladly and went hunting for her phone. "I just hope this evil plan of yours works. A public pool, honestly!"

Penny really should have known that the plan wouldn't work, not entirely.

They had a restless night tossing and turning in her bed, Leonard barely slept long enough to start snoring, and the next day all Penny had wanted to do was muck around on her phone for an hour or two until the doctor came out to tell her that everything went absolutely fine with Leonard's operation, and she could go and sit with him while he recovered from the anesthesia well enough for her to take him home. Then they could both go to sleep for real. Finally.

But no, instead of that, Sheldon happened. He arrived at the hospital with Amy. He looked at her, so betrayed and judgmental and high-and-mighty, and then proceeded to question everything about the hospital and its ability to care for Leonard, as though Leonard was as good as dead and like she was completely incapable of safeguarding her own fiancé's best interests.

Most of the time it didn't bother her, but Leonard was still in surgery, Penny was tired, and she just didn't have the patience she normally possessed. So she called him a pain in the ass because it was true, dammit, but that was all Sheldon needed to challenge her level of worry, like it was some kind of competition he always had to win. It didn't matter how many times she told Sheldon that she was going to spend the rest of her life with Leonard…he just didn't grasp the emotional significance of that. It drove her around the bend.

The tremor and loss of power in the waiting area did worry her, but could she let it show? No, of course not, because she had to be there to reassure Sheldon and look after him after the stupid idiot slammed his own nose into the unmoving glass of a no-through door. As the lights flickered back on seconds later, she had crouched beside him, somewhat playfully glared, and whispered, 'I hope you deviated your septum, dummie'. It had felt so good.

Nurses assured them that emergency priority generators had kept the operating theatres wholly functional throughout the blip, and an hour later as Amy was looking after Sheldon while he got x-rayed and patched up down the hall, the doctor finally came out to talk to Penny. He had said those magic words she had been waiting for: 'All done, Leonard was the perfect patient. No apneic episodes, I think you'll find we've cleared that right up. You can head on up to his room to wait, he shouldn't be long, and I'll pop back in about two hours to do a final check before I sign him out. I expect a full recovery and some great outcomes for you both.'

Penny recalled those words with a full-feeling heart as she brushed her fingers through Leonard's curly hair and urged him to open his eyes. He had only just been wheeled into the room, which seemed to be a busy, temporary holding bay for day-surgery patients who were coming and going. Penny sat on a soft chair at Leonard's bedside. Her free hand clutched his glasses and she watched his eyelashes finally flutter. He was awake, and he was well.

"Hi there, perfect patient," Penny said with a grin. She leant over and kissed his forehead, not wanting to get too close to the swelling and the bruising that was beginning to colour his cheeks, nose and around his eyes. Leonard groaned softly and licked his lips, and Penny chuckled. His nose was completely packed and taped off, he could only breathe through his mouth. If he were famous everyone would think he'd had a nose job. How funny! "It went great," she assured him, not sure of what the nurses had said to him in recovery. "The doctor says you'll make a full recovery, and I have to say you look absolutely awful. They really did a number on your face, sweetie."

"Great," Leonard managed to choke out. "Home yet?"

"Soon," she promised, feeling her heart ache at the innocent, vulnerable longing in his stuffy voice. He just wanted to be somewhere comfortable, he felt rotten, she understood. She was definitely going to have to take a picture of his face though, for posterity. Continuing to stroke her hand through his hair and hold onto his glasses, she asked, "Hey, guess who's here?"

It must have been the way she said it, because Leonard shut his eyes and huffed a solid, "Oh nooo".

"Oh yes," she said. "Your brilliant evil plan lasted not so long after all. He got so worked up that he ran face-first into a door. He could have a broken nose."

"Nooo, don't make me live with Sheldon with a broken nose. I want you."

"Aw, but I think you and Sheldon would make a cute couple," Penny said, teasing. She leant over and kissed his cheek, as close to his ear and as far from the bandages as she could get. "I'll take care of you though," she promised softly. "Why don't I stay nights just until the tape comes off, hmm?"

"Yes please," he hummed. He sounded tired but happy and content, and not in too much pain. That was good. Penny wanted to keep him that way for as long as possible. Sheldon was surely going to blame them both for whatever injury had befallen his nose, Leonard was not going to be happy about that, Penny already wasn't happy, but they were just going to have to suck it up.

Penny noticed that Leonard was drifting off for another sleep, and they had a couple of hours to wait for the anaesthetic to properly wear off anyway; he could rest. She whispered that she loved him and that she was proud of him, and smiled when he quietly mumbled, 'Thank you love'. He never called her that, at least not outside of his own head. It wasn't so bad, Penny thought.

She listened to his breathing for a while, it was stuffy but soft and steady, and when there was no sign of it stopping Penny truly relaxed for the first time in days. No more worrying; Leonard was going to feel so much better and he wasn't going anywhere. All he needed now was a little love and care, cuddles at night and maybe help in the shower, and some good humour to keep his spirits up while Sheldon surely whined about how his poor nose hurt too. Penny could do all of those things. In fact, she was pretty damn good at them.

Penny leant her head to the mattress beside Leonard's arm, grasped his warm hand and threaded her fingers safely and affectionately through his. That was their thing after all; they held hands, always. She shut her eyes. Penny hoped desperately that Sheldon and Amy did not come searching for them until it was time to go, or maybe Amy would prove herself an actual living Saint and simply take Sheldon home despite any protests. Leonard was not the only one in need of a good night's sleep, and as Penny drifted off, she thought two hours in a well lit hospital room was a good enough start.


End file.
